Golden Straw Man

In response to this note[2] that Paul Krugman has in the current issue of The New York Review of Books, I sent this letter:

Dear Editor:

Discussing Milton Friedman’s monetary economics, Paul Krugman says that “he showed himself much less doctrinaire and much more realistic than many of his acolytes: many conservative economists are drawn to visions of a restored gold standard or a world currency, dismissing the problems such a system would create” (Letter, April 12).

Krugman utterly distorts the views of market-oriented economists. Only a tiny, insignificant fringe advocates a gold standard. Many more – influenced by the works of F.A. Hayek[3], Ben Klein[4], Gordon Tullock[5], Larry White[6], George Selgin[7], and Kevin Dowd[8] – support competition among money issuers. This proposal is as far from advocacy of a gold standard or a “world currency” as one can get.